Carding engines



Sept. 4, 1962 A. VARGA 3,051,996

CARDING ENGINES Filed Nov. 3, 1958 /I/l/l/I/I/l/l/l/l/l/ ll/l nited States This invention relates to carding machinery.

One problem that arises in processing wool fibres is the removal of burrs and other impurities. It is desirable to remove these impurities before they are are broken up into smaller particles by the disintegrating action of wires and to achieve this removal before a carded web is submitted to further processing.

The removal of burrs from wool locks or similar fibre agglomerations is usually attempted in the course of processing wool in a carding engine and it is known to lift away part of a fibre-lock from a carrier roller such as a lickerin roller by means of a divider or worker roller. The lifted-away lock part is then submitted to a burr removal process in a generally known manner by employing a Morel roller and then replacing the processed lock part back on to the surface of the same carrier roller at a later point beyond the worker roller that lifted away the lock part in the first instance. By this arrangement a fibrelock part can only be treated to one burr removal process before passing away on the surface of the same carrier roller as it rejoins untreated fibre-lock parts to be immediately carried away by any following roller and disintegrated in the further course of the carding process. Often the burr removal is actually carried out preceding a proper carding action on a carding engine and thus is primarily solely concerned with the removal of burrs and, in an effort to obtain good burr removal, a single stage of processing is carried out on each of a number of carrier rollers.

The main object of this invention is to improve the process of burr removal.

Accordingly there is provided a method of processing wool fibres, consisting in lifting parts of locks of fibres from the wire-clothed surface of a rotating carding roller, submitting said lifted lock parts to be de-burring process, and returning said processed lock parts back on to the surface of the carding roller in advance of the point from whence they were originally removed, whereby repetitive processing is carried out and a web is obtained that is more free of burr particles.

The invention may include the step of removing both treated and untreated lock parts from the carding roller to a second carding roller and carrying out the aforesaid repetitive de-burring processing upon the second carding roller as a further stage of treatment.

The invention also includes apparatus comprising a wire-clothed carding roller a worker (or divider) roller adapted to lift parts of locks of fibres from the carding roller, rotary removal means arranged to transfer the lifted lock parts from the worker roller to a Morel roller, or its equivalent, means for removing (knocking out) burrs from the lock parts as they are carried round by the Morel roller, and said Morel roller being mounted in advance of the worker roller and in such relation to the carding roller that the processed lock parts can be stripped off back on to the carding roller for resubmission to the worker roller.

The improved apparatus may include at least two carding rollers mounted so that a succeeding carding roller receives treated and untreated locks from the preceding carding roller, and repetitive de-burring processing means in association with each carding roller in advance of a worker (or divider) roller.

" atent The invention will now be particularly described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of two carding rollers with one set of repetitive burr-removal means; and

FIG. 2 is a side view of three carding rollers with two sets of repetitive burr-removal means.

In the particular basic arrangement shown in FIG. 1 two carding rollers I, 2 are mounted side-by-side with their axes parallel in the same plane on a framework 3 so that their surfaces are closely adjacent to each other in what may be termed carding co-opcration and with any known means for driving the rollers at different speeds so that the second roller 2 is turning at a sufficiently greater surface speed in order to be capable of stripping all fibres from the preceding roller 1. It will be understood that the direction of rotation of the rollers is such that the succeeding roller rotates in an opposite direction to the preceding roller, i.e., assuming the first to be rotating in a clockwise direction as indicated the second will be anti-clockwise with the wires of the carding clothing 4 inclined and pointing respectively in the direction of their rotation. Driven worker rollers 5, 6 are mounted respectively between the top and bottom arcs of the two adjacent carding rollers with worker roller 5 mounted so that it is in working co-operation with carding roller 1 and clear of carding roller 2. The working roller 6 is mounted in working co-operation with the carding roller 2 and in stripping co-operation with carding roller 1. A rotary brush 7 (or its equivalent) is mounted in engagement with worker roller 5 for stripping lock parts therefrom with a Morel roller 3 mounted adjacent the brush and rotating in the same direction to remove the lock parts from the brush. A rotary beater or like device 9 is mounted above the Morel roller to beat off burrs and other extraneous impurities into a receptacle 10. From this point lock parts on the Morel roller are carried round to a stripping roller rotating in an opposite direction to the Morel roller so that the stripper 11 removes all the processed lock parts and carries them round to where the. stripper is in cooperation with the carding roller 1. This stripping roller 11 is so mounted in relation to the carding roller 1, and their respective wires are so arranged, that fibre-locks on the carding roller are carried past the stripper but any lock parts on the stripper will be removed therefrom by the carding roller and carried round to where the worker 5 is in Working co-operation with the carding roller 1.

In operation fibre-locks will be fed to the carding roller 1 by the means 12 in conventional manner and will be carried past the stripper 11 to the worker 5 which will lift olf part of the locks which will then be transferred by brush 7 to the More] roller 8 for burrs and other impurities to be removed therefrom by the beater 9. The processed fibre-locks will be carried down to be stripped off by rotary stripping roller 11 from whence they will be transferred back on to the carding roller 1 to be re-submitted to the worker 5. Initial fibre-locks left on the carding roller 1 and then later a mixture of processed fibrelocks together with other locks which remain on the carding roller 1 will be stripped off by carding roller 2 and carried down to Worker 6. The latter can be so arranged that at will it can remove more or less of the fibre-locks from carding roller 2 and carry them round to be stripped off by carding roller 1 and carried round for re-submission to worker 5. In this manner a repetitive process of de-bu-rring can be carried out not only by the arrangement of the de-burring means at the top of the carding roller 1 but also by the positioning of worker 6. It will be understood that roller 6 can be mounted so as to be capable of adjusting even during the working of the machinery so as to control the de-burring process. Fibrelocks after processing and passing beyond the Worker 6 can be removed from carding roller 2 in any conventional manner.

In FIGURE 2 the construction is amplified by the addition of a third carding roller 13 with a worker roller 14 disposed in the upper are between carding rollers 2 and 13. The carding roller 13 is rotated at a faster surface speed than roller 2 and arranged in stripping co-operation therewith with worker roller 14 arranged so that it can work in the manner of worker roller 6 to remove a percentage of the fibre-locks from carding roller 13 and transfer them back on to carding roller 2 according to the extent of processing required. As will be observed, the de-burring set of elements described in FIG. 1 are included in this alternative arrangement and a second set of the elements are disposed below and in co-operation with carding roller 2 to repeat the de-burring processing of the fibre-locks. Here again, fibre-locks removed from the carding rollers 1 and 2 for de-burring are placed back 5 on to the respective rollers 1 and 2 in advance of the worker rollers 5. As indicated, a dofiing roller 15 and fancy 16 are shown co-operating with carding roller 13.

Although two and three co-operating carding rollers have been shown, one or more additional carding rollers may be used with or without additional de-burring elernents. Also, only one carding roller 1 may be used with de-b-urring elements 7, 3, 9 and i0, worker 5 and stripper 11 and the carding roller 2 with worker 6 replaced by doffing means such as roller 15.

The terms carding roller" and licker-in roller have been used to indicate the part these rollers play in the particular phase of the processing described, However, it is understood that rollers 1, 2 and 13 are Swifts, i.e. in their co-operation with the rollers 5, 6, 11, 14, 15 and 16, as they are subject to the technological laws governing the function of swifts.

Thus the combination of two or three carding rollers, such as 1, 2 and 13, may be used at the lowest practicable speeds in order to reduce their conventional carding (combing) action, thereby preventing the breaking-up or opening of the spiral type of burrs, which can be knocked out more efiiciently when they are still in their curled-up state. Therefore, it may be policy to use the invention prior to the conventional carding process. Alternatively for W001 fibres containing hard burrs the invention can be utilized at higher carding roller speeds that will, besides de-b urring, at the same time do the usual conventional carding work as well.

What I claim is:

Apparatus for processing wool fibres, including at least first and second wire-clothed carding rollers mounted in stripping co-operation and driven in opposite directions and at successively increased speeds, a driven first worker roller adapted to lift parts of locks of fibres from the first of said carding rollers, rotary removal means arranged to transfer the lifted lock parts from said first worker roller to a Morel roller, means for removing burrs from the lock parts as they are carried round by the Morel roller, said Morel roller being mounted in advance of said first worker roller and in such relation to said first carding roller that the processed lock parts can be stripped off of said Morel roller and delivered back on to said first carding roller for resubmission to said first worker roller, and a driven second worker roller mounted to be capable of transferring fibre-locks from the second carding roller back on to the first carding roller for resubmission to the aforesaid first worker roller and thus also to said Morel roller.

References (Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,478,799 Wilkinson Aug. 9, 1949 2,619,682 Varga Dec. 2, 1952 2,902,724 Twitchell Sept. 8, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 15,182 Germany Oct. 3, 1881 2,467 Great Britain of 1854 713,080 Great Britain Aug. 4, 1954 

